Once We Were Five
by Laura-Grace
Summary: this is my first 1 chapter, but if you like it, i'll put a sequel up. One of the Animorphs was drunk and killed one of the other Animorphs. Who? You'll have to read to find out! R&R.*sequel uploaded* OKay i was lazy and didn't want to make it separate.
1. Default Chapter

Once We Were Five  
AN: I got this idea whie reading my printed copy of an e-mail forward I got that really touched my heart. Just say Tobias is human and Animorphs ended differently, with no deaths and they can't morph anymore. This takes place almost when the Anis are 16. The forward bits and pieces are between asteriks.  
DISCLAIMER: I do not own this forward (I've long since forgotten its title) and I do not own Animorphs.  
  
NOTE: the first part is through the griever's eyes. You'll have to find out who after. Then it goes to 3rd person and you find out who died, who killed them and who the griever is. And forgive me my choice in cars, I am no automobile person.  
  
*Near to the door  
He paused to stand  
As he took his class ring  
Off her hand  
All who were watching  
Did not speak  
As a silent tear  
Ran down his cheek*  
  
The only thought in my mind was 'Why?' Why did he do it? Was he aware that this would happen when he did it?  
  
*And through his mind  
The memories ran  
Of the moments they walked  
And ran in the sand (hand in hand)*  
  
The last time I saw her, she was laughing and beautiful, as always. It was the afternoon before the dance and she was driving home by herself.  
I should have gone with her. I keep thinking I should have gone with her. Everybody keeps telling me "It would have done you no good to have been killed with her, would it?" I know they're right, but it doesn't help anymore than it does knowing who it was that was responsible for her death.  
  
*But now her eyes were so terribly cold  
For he would never again  
Have her to hold*  
  
She's gone now. And all because he decided to have a few too many. And he only had one. The light of love in my life is gone, snuffed out by the crash of windshields and crunch of cars.  
  
*They watched in silence  
As he bent near  
And whispered the words  
"I LOVE YOU" in her ear*  
  
I did. I truly did love her. Ask anybody. They would tell you that she and I, we were meant to be. She was there when I needed her the most and I never left her side.  
  
*He touched her face and started to cry  
As he put on his ring and wanted to die*  
  
I don't think I can handle this pain anymore. I've felt pain, but nothing like this.  
I've nearly died a couple million times from pain of all sorts. I've been through pain, believe me. But this pain, this grief, it takes the cake. It's deeper than I could have ever imagined.  
  
*And just then the wind started to blow  
As they lowered her casket  
Into the snow...*  
  
Oh, god, the wind's picked up again. The pain is welcoming, the snow stinging my cheeks and burning them, it feels, to a crisp.  
Just what I'd like to do to her killer... if I knew who it was. But she's disappearing, going down beneath 6 feet of earth and snow, and I'm being left without her.  
  
*This is what happens  
To man alive...  
When friends let friends...  
Drink and drive.*  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
It had all started just a week ago, maybe. The winter dance was that night and all the Animorphs were excited, except poor Marco, who didn't have a date, and Tobias, who wasn't too keen on dances (he just went to them for Rachel's sake) and who hadn't shown up at school that day, any how. Rachel claimed he'd said he had been under the weather, but Jake and Cassie thought elsewise. Marco just plain didn't care.  
"I can't believe this!" Marco said as the group was walking in the parking lot on their ways to their cars that afternoon. Even if Tobias had been at school, he wouldn't have been there with them because he didn't have a car. A license, (and a debt the size of the Americas, trying to pay off Drivers Ed., the 2 tests that went along with it, and the licensing), but no car. "Why can't I get a date for one stinking dance?"  
Jake sighed and said "Beats me Marco. Now would you just shut up about it?"  
Marco shut up and sulked as he threw his Chevette into gear and roared out of the parking lot.  
"What's with him?" Rachel asked, while laughing, as she opened the door to the van that her mother had let her borrow for today. She bade Jake and Cassie goodbye and then she too left the lot.  
"See you tonight, Cass." Jake said, hugging her tightly before releasing her to the pick-up she wangled out of her father. She too left in a hurry and disappeared around the corner...  
  
And out of the Animorphs' lives forever.  
  
It was 6:30, 15 minutes before Jake was supposed to go pick up the girls and Tobias, when the phone rang. He threw his suit on the bed and howled in frustration, and Tom yelled up the stairs "Yo, Jake! It's for you!"  
Jake picked up his extension gratefully and said "Hello?"  
"Jake?" It was Tobias, sounding crackly and faint, but that was because he had a cheapo cell. "It's me."  
"Man, where are you?" Jake demanded, hearing screams and intercoms and beeps and sirens and sobbing that was suspiciously close.  
"Highway." Tobias said regretfully. "Jake, there was a car accident. Cassie's in real bad shape."  
  
In a split second, Jake was off the phone, down the stairs and out the driveway, explaining quickly what the problem was to his parents along the way. He had agreed to meet Tobias and Rachel at the hospital. He attempted to catch Marco on his cell, but the line was 'temporarily out of order'.  
10 minutes later, he reached the hospital same time as the ambulance. Rachel and Tobias were already inside, Tobias' usually bright blue-green eyes darkened, not only because of the black eye and bruises around his face and Rachel hidden in his arms, the right wrist Ace bandaged. "Tobias? Rach?" Rachel looked up at Jake. Jake saw her tearstained face and red eyes, and didn't feel in the least bit relieved.  
The stretcher came in like a flash and Jake was by the side in the same amount of time. The paramedics and doctors shoved him away and he glared at them, then reluctantly joined Rachel and Tobias in the waiting room for a long while.  
"How in the world did you get here, anyhow?" Jake asked Tobias finally.  
"I, uh, kind of, uh, took my uncle's car." Tobias said sheepishly. "Without him knowing."  
"You STOLE your uncle's car?" Jake asked incredulously, but quietly.  
"I prefer the term 'taking without planning to return'. And besides, I would have had to return it anyhow. So really, it isn't STEALING, per say." Tobias answered, wincing and flinching as Rachel grabbed his bad wrist when a doctor emerged from the Trauma room. "Johanson?"  
Jake, Rachel, and Tobias stood up, just as Cassie's parents came in. "What's going on, Jake?" Michelle asked. Jake shook his head. "That's what we're about to find out."  
The doctor led them into a small room, and closed the door.  
  
Now it was the 23rd of December, Cassie's funeral. The past week was filled with cops, and well-meaning people. Cops especially in Tobias' case. For reasons unknown to the teens, they seemed to suspect him of being the one who killed Cassie.  
Rachel and Jake were both numb, as if time had frozen them. Marco drank himself into oblivion and Tobias never came to school, which Marco did for a few days and Jake and Rachel for the memorial service. Rachel suspected that between the media and the cops, Tobias couldn't even breathe without being peppered with questions. Jake, however, just held a grudge against the Red Baron.  
  
Tobias was frustrated to the extremes of his nerves. Why would he kill Cassie? Deep in his heart, he knew who had killed Cassie, but if he told Jake, Jake would blow him off, and if he told Rachel, Rachel would go after the real killer.  
He had wanted to go to the memorial service and the funeral, but police had placed him under house arrest. He had tried to explain it to Jake, but he hung up on Tobias. Marco was simply too drunk to understand. Rachel was a bit more compassionate, but Tobias knew that she too would move away from him. Everybody did.  
Nobody had ever really trusted him, besides the Animorphs, but Tobias could feel the hatred beginning to grow in Jake's heart for him. Marco was never sober, so he really couldn't tell what Marco was feeling. Rachel... Tobias didn't want to think about how she would feel right now...  
  
The funeral was a windy day, outside and with quite a few people. Rachel knew there was something Tobias wasn't telling her, and it was eating away at her.  
After the funeral ended, Rachel and Jake were in his car on the way home when Marco's now familiar slurred voice was on the cell when Jake answerd it ring. "Hey, Jake. Got thome newth fow you."  
"Have you been drinking again?" Jake asked, with a more of an underquestion being "How much did you have this time?"  
"Doethent mattew. Anywayth, Tobiath is awethted thith mowning."  
"WHAT!?" Rachel shrieked from her eavesdropping spot next to Jake.  
"Yep. The copth thaid he wath guilty." Marco said. Then he hung up.  
Rachel and Jake stared at each other for a good long time. Then Jake threw the car into life and zoomed out of the farm as fast as he could with the speed limit restricting. Rachel was quaking in terror. She couldn't handle another loss.  
  
Marco sat back down on his bed and cackled away in glee. He took one last swig on his beer and cackled some more. "Thay goodbye, Tobiath. They'll nevew believe you. You'll get the death thentethe and then I can be fwee!"  
  
****************************************************************************  
AN: yes, I know, I know, it's evil of me to leave you hanging like that. If I get some good reviews on this one, I'll be making the sequel. And FYI: Marco's drunk language is his R is now a W and and his S is now TH. 


	2. Haunting Memories

Once We Were Five: Haunting Memories  
  
AN: I seriously don't know if this is going to be the last chapter or not, it depends.  
  
DISCLAIMER: see first chapter  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"The jury has found you guilty as charged." The judge told Tobias firmly in the New York court as he slammed the gavel down. "The sentence is death." The witnesses started whispering among themselves and Tobias felt his last remaining tendrils of hope snap.  
  
When he left the courthouse in care of the two prison guards, he could hear all the radio stations and TV news channel reporters chattering away into their mikes and groaned.  
  
"The court judgment has just come out!" Perky Laura Einman said cheerfully. "This 16-year-old boy has been found guilty of two accounts of first-degree murder and driving while intoxicated. The court has given him the death sentence! This is Laura Einman, for Pasadena Channel 9 news. New York City, New York."  
  
"Oh, man..." Jake groaned and stood up from his spot on the couch. Tom looked questioningly at him. "Someone needs to go restrain Rachel. Somehow, I think she's going to go nuts."  
  
"How could they do that to him?!" Rachel screamed up in her room, venting anger. "There is no way he could have been the one driving that night! He was with me the entire time! And they didn't even research that other charge properly!"  
  
She was still screaming when Jake showed up at the house an hour later, and she had started throwing things too. Sara opened the door and said "I think she's mad."  
  
"No, really?" Jordan asked sarcastically as she met them in the hall. "Follow the yells."  
  
"I know where Rachel's room is." Jake told her, as he left for her room. There was another crash from upstairs and more screaming. "Man, now I'm glad she can't morph anymore. This house would be in ruins."  
  
"The way this is going, it just might be any way." Jordan said.  
  
Jake whimpered when he reached her door and there was silence. He opened it slowly and found her collapsed on the bed, her shoulders shaking. "Hey, Rach?" he said softly. "You know, if we really move, we might make to NY before they do it."  
  
Tobias was pacing in the death row cell, his tear ducts long since emptied. He had finished off two letters and had given them to the guard to send to Pasadena. That was two long hours ago and now he was waiting for the injection in 10 minutes.  
  
"Hey, kid?" a gruff voice came from behind the steel door. "It's time."  
  
"What do you mean, there's been a slight delay in transport to the city?" Rachel screamed at the policeman.  
  
"Sorry, miss, we can't let any traffic or pedestrians through." he told her. "The accident's clogged up all the lanes and sidewalks."  
  
"We have to get through NOW!" Rachel shrieked at him.  
  
"I'm sorry, miss, I'm just doing my job."  
  
"Okay, kid, just sit there on the seat, that's a good kid." Eric Berenson said as Tobias slid onto the death chair.  
  
Eric's partner, a young guy, came in with the syringe, and handed it to Eric before fleeing. Tobias watched as Eric rolled up Tobias' sleeve to administer the deadly poison...  
  
"Come on, Jake!" Rachel urged as they were running through an alternate route. She was praying that it wouldn't be too late...  
  
As the poison coursed through Tobias' veins, Eric watched his face carefully. Usually, after the first few seconds, there came-  
  
"AHHHHHH!" Tobias screamed helplessly. "I DIDN'T DO IT!"  
  
Then there was a soft "I love you, Rachel," before the silence overcame the room.  
  
Eric was shaking, now. Never, in all his years as executioner, had he heard a prisoner scream that they were innocent. He'd heard it all, from the "OKAY, I DID IT!" to the "HELP ME, MAMA!" But never "I DIDN'T DO IT!" Usually the seconds before death were the emotional ones, where the madmen yelled "Heil Hitler!" or other like phrases, the guilty guiltily said "I'm sorry." The emotional said "Forgive me," and familial said their last "I love you". He'd even heard a few "I am a sinner, oh Lord. Forgive my sins, so that I may-" Then he died.  
  
'Rachel?' Eric wondered as he exited the room, leaving the dead teen's body for the Disposal crew to take care of. 'I wonder...'  
  
He knew his niece Rachel in California had a boyfriend whose name was Tobias. Coincidence? Maybe. But Rachel had the same temper as him and if he had indeed killed her boyfriend...  
  
Eric didn't want to think about that.  
  
He sat down in the hallway, rubbing his temples, when there came a call of "Uncle Eric!"  
  
Eric groaned as he looked up and saw Jake and Rachel running towards him. "You're too late." He said as they stopped in front of him.  
  
Rachel collapsed onto the ground, in shock. Two. That was two losses she'd suffered, in just one week. She broke down and started sobbing.  
  
Jake and Eric, unsure of what to do for her, stood awkwardly in front of each other. Rachel said softly from the ground "Can I go in?"  
  
Eric opened the door. Rachel closed the door behind her, and Jake watched as his pale-faced uncle slid down to the ground. "I'm going to be hearing that for a long time..."  
  
"Tobias..." Rachel whispered, still clinging desperately to the slim chance he'd be alive. "Oh, Tobias, why'd they do it? I know you didn't do it..." she pressed his cold hand against her cheek. "I love you, Tobias..."  
  
* * *  
  
When Jake, Rachel, and Eric returned to Pasadena, Naomi, Jean and Steve were waiting for them.  
  
Staying with Jake's family, Eric woke up every night in a cold sweat, remembering the helpless screams of innocence from Tobias.  
  
Rachel was sinking deeper and deeper into depression, and Jake was getting more and more frightened. He hardly even recognized Rachel anymore.  
  
Then came the fateful dream. Rachel was sleeping uneasily again, echoes from the past drifting into and out of her dreams, when she heard someone say, "Rachel... Rachel, listen to me."  
  
`Who is it?' Rachel thought sleepily. "Rach, it's Cassie. Whatever you do, do not wake up right now. Do not wake up." `Right, Cass. Whatever. What do you want? What's happening?' "Let's just say once we were 5. After that we became 3. Right now, we're 2. We'll be one by the end of tonight." `You're not making sense, Cass. Elaborate.'  
  
"Rachel, come on." It took all of her strength NOT to wake up. `Tobias?' "The one and the only, Rach. Now listen hard. The car that crashed into Cassie was a red Chevette with the license MDISCOOL. Who do we know that drives a car like that?" `Marco?' Rachel asked skeptically.  
  
"Exactly." `Jake?!' Rachel yelped silently. `Okay, now I'm going nuts.' "No, you're not." `Course I am.' "Rachel, shut up and listen." Cassie growled. "There's not much time left and you need to understand fast. Somehow, Marco got his morphing powers back and morphed out when he crashed into me. He's been raving mad for a while now. He deliberately crashed his car, even if he was drunk, into mine," "He tipped the police off about something that happened in NYC with me, although I'm at a loss at how he found out," Tobias continued. "And he just killed me in my sleep." Jake finished.  
  
"Now, don't start yelling." Cassie started again. "Please don't start yelling. Now, don't start freaking out either, but... someone else tell her." Tobias took over. "He is--" "Do you have to tell her in that much detail?" `Oh, be quiet Jake. No matter how you tell her, it's gonna happen."  
  
Rachel was about to ask what was going to happen, when she felt an intense pain in her chest. Losing it and screaming in agony, she saw everything flash before her eyes, and fell silent.  
  
From beside her bedside, Marco quickly changed *pop* from a guy into a roach and skittered out underneath Sara's legs as she stumbled into Rachel's room. Sara started screaming and crying and screaming again as the blood kept flowing across the bedsheets, across the carpet, creeping ever closer to her slippered feet.  
  
Marco was now the only Animorph left, and that had been his plan all along. He had been ordered around by Jake long enough, he had been outsmarted by Cassie too many times, he'd been teased and taunted by Rachel way too much, and he hated Tobias for taking what he thought to be rightfully his away from him: Rachel.  
  
Ah, yes Rachel. His first love. Sure, he knew she would never go for him, but he thought she would change her mind. He had almost gotten her on a date with him...  
  
Then along came Tobias and all his hard work went down the drain. Rachel was obviously taken with him, and Marco hadn't liked this at all. They were all going to pay for taking advantage of him, oh, yes they would.  
  
He knew he could get at the others easily enough: it was Rachel and Jake that worried him. Cassie lived too far out to be well protected. Driving her clear off the road was his first step. Just get her away from those others and she would be vulnerable, easily targeted, and gone.  
  
Tobias' little incident in NYC was pure luck that he found out. It seemed that Tobias had moved to Pasadena in the first place because he had gotten into a spot of a bother with the police in NYC. Found at the scene of a murder and they all had thought him guilty, just as they had with Cassie's death. Oh, this was pure ecstasy for Marco, to kill Tobias and not even be truly involved. All he had had to do was mention innocently to the police Tobias' little record and they did the rest.  
  
After Tobias was gone, that left Rachel free for the taking, but not before the meddling war hero Jake was out of the way. It had been easy for Marco to sneak into Jake's bedroom, in morph, of course, and kill swiftly. Nobody heard Jake yell, and he even doubted they had found out yet. Sure, Jake had been his best friend once, but those days were over. Oh, no, Marco Degagne didn't count on, work for, or do anything with anybody but himself now.  
  
Then Rachel: the final step in his plan. She, too, was so vulnerable, but why had it been so hard for him to get to her? It was if she'd had a ring of protection around her, but he had broken through finally, but he had hesitated. Stupid, stupid conscience, why did come to haunt him now? If he hadn't hesitated, he could've been out and out of town before daybreak. Not now. Now he had to hang around and make his exit quietly.  
  
But that was past: his plan was complete and he could live in complete bliss for the remainder of his life.  
  
* * *  
  
Meanwhile, in a place called Perfect (AKA Cloud 9, 7^th Heaven, plain Heaven):  
  
"Hey, Rach, Rach, calm down. It's okay." Tobias soothed, as Rachel was sobbing into his arms.  
  
"It was so horrible," Rachel whimpered. Tobias gave a sort of wry grin at Jake and Cassie, hand in hand a distance away. "All of ours were, Rach. Now calm down, he can't get you here."  
  
**************************************************************************************  
  
AN: yes, yes I know I'm horrible. I am beating myself up continually for doing this to the Animorphs. NO FLAMES, no matter how much you feel like flaming me. 


End file.
